Teams of Three, R4, Shiplate Farm, Sunday 31st October 2021

 Hawthorn for me today, I knew the lake before hand, just the peg to be drawn on the day.  Bob Gullick had said before hand, you don't want peg 2 or 15, I was handed 2......

Struggled to catch I think I beat two on the lake, around 11 am I started to get a terrible headache, feeling sick and generally unwell, stayed fishing to the end, no idea how.  Got home and took a covid test, that was clear, my Mrs thought it might have been a migraine

Not sure I could have done much more even if I was 100%, but I would surely had had a couple more fish.

Acorn Open, Saturday 30th October 2021

 Last of the summer opens and the optional series today.  I was looking OK for a third place in the optional series and last in the money, first and third already taken

Disappointing turnout again, this is a great fishery and there aren't any openings for Sunday opens on here.  10 fishing so a bit of space, I drew 38, which was next to Gareth Boycott on 49, who had second in the series tied up.

Simple set up, rigs for across with pellet and maggot, another for down the shelf and a edge rig.  It was tough going, pellets were a waste of time, so I fished maggots on all lines, but soon realised even that was unlikely to be competing with the pegs further round the lake.  Gareth on 40 was suffering the same fate and Rich on 6 was finding the same thing, so 3 of us on the wrong side.....

I ended up fishing maggots on the bottom of the near shelf to catch tench, skimmers and carp, but not enough of any of them.  Mark Broomsgrove beating me to the last in the money in the series, as I only managed to put 48lb on the scales, pegs 40 and 6 DNW.

1. Martin Rayet 171.12 peg 1 

2.Des Shipp 91.00 peg 9

3. Laurie Lang 72.00 peg 11

4. Mark Broomsgrove 72.00 peg 3

5. Craig Challingsworth 69.02 peg 5

6. Dave Haines 64.00 peg 15

Silvers

1. Kev Perry 24.11 peg 13

Optional Series

1. Martin Rayet

2. Gareth Boycott

3. Mark Broomsgrove

Darby's Pairs, Ivy House, Sunday 24th October 2021

 Ivy House for a pairs match organised by Jon Darby, one of the pair on the Old Match Lake and Willow, the other on the canals.  Fishing with Tony Rixon, we'd already drawn straws putting me on the canals, and Tony on the other lakes.

Tony drew peg 2, which can be OK and me on 48, not the peg of choice on the canal, but I'd usually back myself to catch a few off any peg on Kingfisher (the canal I was on), although the competition was tough.

Only a pole, so a few rigs, one for across with banded pellet, too deep really on the far side, I couldn't find any little shelf or area that was shallower.  A rig to fish caster short, another for the edge and two for down the track, one with a bulk and one light rig strung out.

I'm not going waffle on, I struggled, the worst day I have ever had on that lake, I had one bite across, whilst peg 49 had a few, pegs 47 and 46 were also struggling.  I tried short and that was OK if I had wanted to catch roach, but there was little else feeding there.

By now peg 49 had come down his track and was catching, whilst my float remained absolutely stationary.   I tried a line with negative feeding and another positive, neither worked, I was running out of ideas, this may well have been one of those days when I might have been better served just sitting on one line waiting for a bite, but I find that pretty much impossible to do, especially when others are catching.

It didn't even get good at the end, battered off the next peg (49) who weighed 70lb to my 17lb, I was close to being last in the whole match and I still have no idea what I could have done to change it, the lake was won with over a ton from the the area I would have chosen.  

I didn't get the result sheets at the end, as we left with both seats in the van empty handed...  Well done to the winning pairs and onto the the next match!

Mystery Teams Of Three, The Glebe, Saturday 23rd October 2021

 A while back I stuck my name down for a mystery teams match at The Glebe, which was being organised on Maggotdrowning (forum), for the competitors it was as simple as turn up and draw a peg, just like an open, the pegs were allocated to the teams before the draw I believe so it was pot luck who you fished with.

Nice early start for the drive up tp the Glebe, its about 130 miles, but a large part of that is motorway, so not too bad at 2 hrs 15 mins.  Got there in plenty of time, as the event was a team event there was no individual payout, so I ran a superpool, which 2/3's of the field entered.

I haven't really had a chance to get to the Glebe for a few years, shame as it's a great fishery, so I had pestered Mark Poppleton for some info, which helped to cement the thoughts I had and a simple plan was formulated - hard pellets, corn and dead maggots.

Draw done and I must admit I didn't know who I was fishing with, so just my match to concentrate on, peg 7, not one I have heard of as a much revered draw, but I was sure there would be fish to be caught off most pegs.  

Set up two 10' Daiwa Tournament feeder rods, on with a straight lead and one clipped up across with a 4 square feeder,  A 12' Daiwa waggler rod with a straight waggler under which was a 0.16 hooklength and 16 PR36 with a hair rigged band.

Poe rigs were a margin rig (just in case, never expected to catch on it), a skimmer rig in case it was hard, a Malman Roob for corn short, that had a 16 Kaizen to 0.17, two pellet rigs (again, Roobs), one with LWG to 0.15, the other a 18LWG to 0.13.  

Started at 6 joints with a banded 6mm pellet, toss potting a few in, nothing, not even a liner.  Reluctantly I picked up the feeder rod and put a 6mm Coppens in the band, filled the cage with micros and dropped it just short of the far bank (think it maybe too shallow tight in).  I had two fish for about 7lb in a couple of casts, I'd started pinging a few pellets 3/4 the way across and saw some fish moving about.  Happily chucked the feeder up the bank and had a nice couple of hours fishing the waggler with either a 6 or 8mm pellet in the band, fishing at full depth with just one No8 at half depth.

With a couple of hours to go, it slowed up, I started feeding corn at 6 joints, the put the feeder over the waggler line, this time with two worms, had a couple on this, before trying the corn line, this was frustrating, one skimmer and 4 lost foulers - unusual when fishing corn.  I had another look on the waggler, nothing, I had now wasted an hour swapping and changing trying to find the fish again.   I fe a line at 14.5m and fished the pellet rig with the 0.13 hooklength over it, This brought me 4 more fish in the last 30 minutes. I should have done it for the last 2 hours, I'm sure I should have had 125-140lb from the peg.

I weighed 97.09 which was enough to win individually and my team mates (forum names) Can't Compete and Kev Coke were second in the team result, so a successful day.  Team winners were, Peter, 90's Gear and Stewie74 who pipped us by one point.  Thanks to Whisker for organising and all who took part for a match fished with a great atmosphere.  (And I finally got to meet Neil of the Nene).

Penultimate Summer Open, Acorn, Saturday 16th October 2021

 For various had a few dropouts on this match, so more of a 10 peg knock-up than a real open, but there was still the optional series to fish for.  Last match in this series, I drew peg 1, couldn't believe it when I drew it again, another trip over the bridge onto the island.

Unbelievably, Martin Rayet drew peg 5 again, he's never off it!!

On peg 3 I had my old mate Paul Faiers, he was going to fish for silvers, a bit risky as I only pay one in the silvers and you can win both.  I set up two rigs for across, identical except one with a 18 LWG tied with a band in a hair, the other with a 20 LWG to 0.13. One rig for the RH edge, another for the LH edge which is deeper and a strung out rig for where I could find 3' of water.  Plenty of fish moving around, so I didn't set up a rig for on the deck.

Started across with a 6mm banded pellet, toss potting 4mm, had a couple of liners a small carp on it, it didn't seem right, switched to a 4mm in the band, that brought a few small carp, far too small.  I switched to the maggot rig and that did get a response from a couple of better fish, but it was slow going.  I'd been flicking a few maggots on the 3' deep line and went over that with the light strung out rig and a red and a white maggot on the hook, I had a couple of tench and some skimmers, along with a couple of carp, enough bites to keep me at it and it seemed to be fishing hard for most.

I did try the RH edge much earlier than I would usually, I had a instant fish from it and then nothing.  Back across and I had  run of carp around the 1lb mark, but I'd need to get some of their bigger brothers to do any good.

I hadn't seen any sign of activity in the LH edge, but it was a couple of feet deep, so the fish don't always give themselves away in that depth.  The last 80 minutes I spent down that edge, think I may have underfed it at one stage as the bites dried up, but the net I started with 80 minutes to go had 40lb in at the end, the quiet spell I suffered was costly, as my 121.14 was third on the day.

1. Gareth Boycott 136.05 peg 9
2. Glenn Calvert 133.02 peg 38
3. Chris Fox 121.14 peg 1
4. Martin Rayet 116.06 peg 5
5. Glenn Bailey 97.09 peg 15
6. Joe McMahon 96.13

Silvers

1. Paul Faiers 31.15 peg 3

2. Dave Haines 21.12 peg 40

Ivy House Open, Sunday 3rd October 2021

 Over two lakes today, old match lake and willow, I didn't fancy drawing the bank by the speci lake, so where did I draw, 32, one peg away from where I dismally failed to weigh in in the spring festival.

Travelling partner Tony, drew peg 2 which I would have taken in preference to mine.  I did set up a method, a straight lead and a waggler - the two lead rods went away at the end unused, as I thought my best chance of picking up was fishing for silvers and I did expect the OML to produce the winning silvers weight, but decided to give it go, as for me it would be a bit of an unknown, not having fished for silvers on willow before.

Started well catching roach short on caster, then the sun came out and spoilt that, I had fed two skimmer lines, one with GB/maggot and another with micros.  Well I had a frustrating few hours, my bluetooth headphones were flat, so had to listen the the GP from the speaker on my phone (turned right down so as not to upset anyone).  But the biggest frustration was that there were skimmers in the peg, I was missing bites and foul hooking them.  I tried lighter rigs, heavier rigs, not feeding GB, corn on the waggler (not a bite on it) and I was pretty stumped, the one thing I didn't do was persist with expanders, which turned out to be a mistake.

I the last 30 minutes the trees and bushes behind me cast a shadow on the water and the roach came back, I had some decent fish (up to 10oz) amongst the smaller specimens, but felt I'd fall a long way short.

As it turns out there wasn't a big silvers weight from OML (17.12 being top silvers on there) and John on peg 31 to my right weighed 24.14 to my 17.10, he'd sat it out on expanders and caught plenty of hand sized skimmers  - patience is a virtue I am yet to learn..... (likewise having confidence in soft pellets!)

Charlie Barnes Memorial, Acorn Fishery, Saturday 2nd October 2021

 Charlies memorial match is a silvers only match, it couldn't be any other way, Charlie, to put it mildly, was not keen on 'vermin' and only fished for silvers.  For those who didn't know him, a big character for many years on the match scene, he owned a maggot farm at one time and sponsored a very successful team - Avon Bait.  Much missed by his angling friends.

27 fishing, I wasn't too fussed where I drew, although a bridge peg is usually home to a few tench.  13 it was, nowhere near a bridge, but should be OK for a few bites, although I had my doubts it would take a big weight to win it, given the bright sunshine, no breeze and warm weather - not ideal silvers weather and the carp were already active.

Decided there wasn't any need to get more than 11m of pole out, likely to be carp and F1's across, so a rig for skimmers at 11m, another rig for 2+2, one for topkit only and one for halfway up the near shelf either side.  Bait tray was maggots, casters, worms could stay in the bag, they'd attract carp!  Had some micros and soft pellets, but wasn't expecting much but carp on them if I'm honest.

With Sue Faiers on my right on 12 and venue regular Mike Chapman on 15, I had a little space towards 14, but I started short on caster and had 4 tench and a couple of roach in the first hour.  The skimmer line was a bit of a non starter, I had one over it, but there were carp over any feed I put in straight away, I landed carp to just about 10lb on a 20 Guru F1 and 0.10, not losing many at all, they were becoming a nuisance, several times there were five of us in a row playing carp, that went straigh back.

I just stuck at the caster and was rewarded with an odd tench and other silver throught the match, slow going because of the weather, but it was a lovely day to be out.

Come the end, I managed to put 17.15 0n the scales, which wasn't enough to claim the memorial shield, as I was beaten into second place by my mate Paul, who had a great skimmer catch of 21.10, good on the day when most struggled to catch them  Third was another silvers stalwart, Nige Bartlett.